GuidoDelConfuso:I'm hardly a police apologist, but I gotta say... I watched the video, and it really didn't look like the cop was using excessive force. The guy was clearly drunk and having a hard time standing up, and once he did get on his feet the cop pushed him back onto the ground with his foot. At first glance it looks sort of like a kick, but the guy doesn't react as if he'd just been kicked-instead, he actually continues to stand up. The second time, which immediately follows the first, he falls backwards onto the police car and tumbles to the ground, which is pretty much what you'd expect if he were extremely drunk and had just been pushed off balance.

This is hardly a case of the guy getting a severe beating despite obviously offering no resistance. He was clearly doing something he shouldn't have been doing, and given that he had just escaped from a patrol car and refusing orders to stay on the ground he was probably combative and would likely have bitten or spit on any officer who gave him a chance to do so. I think I might well have done the same thing in the cop's situation, and given the distance and angle of the camera it might well have looked like a kick.

Do everyone a favor, people--before you go crucifying this guy, take a look at the video and see if you might possibly have taken the same action that the cop did were you in his place. Let's save our righteous indignation for the pigs that truly deserve it, huh?

You expect me to watch a video before I decide whether or not someone is guilty? Screw that! What are you this guys brother? Everyone knows cops are criminals and criminals are criminals. If they didn't do anything wrong, there wouldn't be an article on Fark about them. Obviously this cop is guilty. As are all cops!

Lsherm:fusillade762: It seems it's nearly impossible to get a cop fired. Hell, here in Portland one shot an unarmed, fleeing man in the back and killed him. The mayor fired him but arbitrators insisted he be reinstated.

99.998er:There are stereotypes for a reason. Cops become cops for a reason. Normally making up for some serious inadequcies in their own life. I have never met a cop that didn't have some trumped up bullshiat story or who was humble. Think of nerdy kid in high school that now has a badge & gun.

brianbankerus:fusillade762: It seems it's nearly impossible to get a cop fired. Hell, here in Portland one shot an unarmed, fleeing man in the back and killed him. The mayor fired him but arbitrators insisted he be reinstated.

Similar to Seattle. Cop was fired and the union got him rehired because it was discriminatory to let ONE cop go for abuse when so many others had not been fired.

Don't worry, the cop apologists will be in here momentarily.

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CruiserTwelve:The City of Sarasota's Civil Service Board has overturned the firing of a Sarasota Police officer from a 2009 incident.

Wow! It's almost like the cop exercised his due process rights and an independent board comprised of non-cops found that he didn't do what he had originally been accused of doing! How unfair!

fusillade762:It seems it's nearly impossible to get a cop fired. Hell, here in Portland one shot an unarmed, fleeing man in the back and killed him. The mayor fired him but arbitrators insisted he be reinstated.

It's almost as if the police aren't our friends. It's almost as if they are not to be trusted, why do they try to fool us into being so distrustful of them? Why do the fine upstanding police officers try to make us afraid of them?